MISAU 2017: Two million meticais worth of stolen medicines recovered, 24 private clinics fined and more

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MISAU 2017: Two million meticais worth of stolen medicines recovered, 24 private clinics fined and more

7:01 CAT | 02 Mar 2018

Ministério-da-Saúde-de-Moçambique-Maputo.misau

MISAU headquarters in Maputo

In 2017, the Mozambican Health Ministry seized medicines stolen from the national health service valued at two million meticais (about 32,800 US dollars), the General Inspector of the Ministry, Martinho Djedje, told a Maputo press conference on Thursday.

Summarising the activities of the inspectorate last year, Djedje said that 24 Ministry staff involved in stealing medicines had faced criminal and disciplinary proceedings.

“One of the greatest concerns of the Ministry is the theft and diversion of medicines”, he said. The fight against the thefts was undertaken in coordination with the police and the customs service, and also relied on denunciations made by members of the public.

Djedje added that over the year 24 private clinics were fined a total of 1.6 million meticais. “Some clinics are functioning without the requisite licence, or with expired licences”, he said. “We found doctors with no professional licence, or whose licence is out of date. Others are practising medicine without the due authorisation”.

Particularly alarming was the discovery that some private clinics “have problems in managing hospital waste. Special attention should be paid to this matter”.

As for the pharmaceutical area, Djedje’s department had inspected 83 private pharmacies and four companies that import medicines. “We note that some pharmacies have fixed high prices for some medicines, which are not in line with the import procedures for pharmaceutical goods”, he said.

There were also cases of medicines of unknown origin. “We know they didn’t come from the national health service, but we’ve been unable to identify their country of origin”, said Djedje. “We also found medicines which should only be used with a doctor’s prescription, but which are being sold without a prescription. This is particularly the case with antibiotics”.

The inspections led to the closure of one pharmacy and fines of 600,000 meticais for two other pharmacies, and two companies importing medicines.

“We received 47 complaints about poor attendance in our health units, and 57 complaints about delays in attendance”, said Djedje. “There were 24 complaints about illicit charges”.

Djedje added that 232 disciplinary proceedings were initiated, of which 12 were sent to the courts. Penalties imposed ranged from warning to expulsion from the health service.

Source: AIM